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Monthly Archives: March 2014

There are signs of change in Bremerton. Or, more
literally, there are changing signs.

I’ve noticed several local businesses have recently upgraded
their storefront signage. Some, like Uptown Mercantile and
Marketplace (above), recently opened. Others, like the Bremerton
Ice Arena (below), have been there for a long while.

Perhaps the signage is just a little image upgrading in time for
spring. Have you seen any sign upgrades lately? Drop me a picture
and a line at jfarley@kitsapsun.com and I’ll post them here.

You might have noticed that Rimnam
Thai Cuisine, formerly of E. 11th in Manette, is getting pretty
close to opening in the defunct Bay Bowl near Harrison Medical
Center. Sign’s up!

It’s finally on the agenda. On Wednesday
night, the Bremerton City Council will tackle an issue long
discussed, but never dealt with — not recently anyway.

Yep, we are talking about raccoons.

Councilman Eric Younger told me he’s lived in different homes in
Bremerton and has seen problems with raccoons in each one. He is
most concerned with neighbors who feed them, thus creating a
reliant critter population that can create problems in
neighborhoods.

“I’m trying to come up with a solution,” Younger said. “To the
best of my knowledge, no one has addressed this.”

Here’s what’s on the table. The city administration has
responded with a potential change to city code that would include making it
unlawful to feed raccoons outdoors at anytime. Violators would be
subject to a $125 fine for a first offense; $250 for a second
offense in the same year and $500 for a third and each subsequent
offense in the same year.

Failing to respond to an infraction would become a criminal
misdemeanor offense as well, and could be subject to civil action
from the city.

Here’s the other part of the plan: the city would hire a
United States Department of Agriculture wildlife specialist for up
to 80 hours a year, at a cost of $3,500. They will assist the city
“in the form of educational information, non-lethal techniques or
direct control.”

“If direct control is necessary, the most effective and safe
tools and techniques available will be utilized,” the program plan
says.

I think that means the wildlife specialist will have the ability
to use traps and to shoot raccoons in the city.

I’d like to hear from my fellow Bremertonians about this issue.
Do you have a raccoon problem? Do you love them and keep one as a
pet? (Not recommended.) Drop me a note below or email me at
jfarley@kitsapsun.com. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this
issue.

We had a nice turnout, with 15 people coming along to learn
about the successes of the western half of the street, and failures
of the eastern half. Some participants knew a lot — I’d even quoted
them in the story — while others came along to expand their
knowledge.

In any event, I really enjoyed going beyond the story to help
others experience Fourth Street for themselves. Response thus far
has been good from the tour, and I am planning to do one similar
event each month for the rest of the year.

If you’ve been in the Manette Saloon on East 11th
lately, you know that one of its walls has recently been adorned
with a fantastical mural, complete with soaring bald eagle,
moss-covered tree and a Rainier-esque mountain.

But those who’ve lived in the area awhile know the artifact is
not new to the bar.

Rebecca Dove Taylor, the saloon’s owner, said the mural has come
home, having been gone for more than a decade. Painted inside the
bar sometime in the early ’90s, a former business partner took it
with him when he left saloon management.

How it was painted — and who created it — is a great story in
and of itself. His name is Jason Najarak, an artist and art
conservator who once came to Bremerton to visit his brother.

Najarak, who has become renown for his “primal realism”
style, is based in Minnesota. I tracked him down for a phone call a
few weeks back.

A frequenter of the bar while here, Najarak, who tells stories
of meeting Picasso on his web
site, asked to paint the ambitious mural and created it right
in the bar itself.

He used oil and egg tempura paint, a tradition that dates back
to the middle ages, and took a few months to put it all
together.

“Sometimes I’d go in there before they opened,” to work, he told
me. “Sometimes, I would paint right there while they were partying
behind me.”

He didn’t have a plan at first. In fact, that’s part of his
signature style — he likes to work the canvas with some basic
ideas, then go from there once he sees what he’s got. Often, he’ll
paint over things he’s worked on for hours, even days, if he’s not
feeling it.

Bremerton police nabbed 24
drivers in just over an hour for driving solo in the HOV lane.
Photo by Bremerton police.

Bremerton police officers made a curious discovery last
Thursday while patrolling the carpool lanes on Navy Yard
Highway. As they peered into one of the cars they
stopped, they noticed the driver, alone, had a carseat riding
shotgun, with a blanket over it.

And they found this not once, but twice, after only an hour and
15 minutes of patrolling.

In total, five officers trolled the carpool, or High Occupancy
Vehicle (HOV) lane, on Highway 304 between 3:45-5 p.m. The officers
sat in traffic and watched for cars to go by in the carpool lane
that looked like they had only one occupant. The HOV violations
added up quickly, and by the time it was over, 24 tickets had been
written.

“There are few traffic violations that make peoples’ blood boil
more than High Occupancy Vehicle lane violations,” Bremerton Police Chief
Steve Strachan wrote in his
weekly update. “While traffic is backed up and stop-and-go for
people following the law, drivers by themselves in the HOV
lane go flying by, effectively saying to everyone else that their
time is simply more important than yours.”

Strachan also noted that by their presence, traffic actually
moved more smoothly as less cars moved along the HOV lane.

And it won’t be the last time police will be out there.

“We will be doing this again,” Strachan wrote. “The word
will start to get around.”

He just wanted to kill some weeds. But an
environmentally conscious Bremerton City Council told Public Works
Director Chal Martin last Wednesday they wanted to make certain
that green practices were followed as part of an upcoming
maintenance project.

At issue was a $44,000 contract with Superior Maintenance
Solutions to apply herbicide and eliminate weeds that are growing
out of city sidewalks. The work is a pilot project for the
city.

The project includes the weeding and cleaning of sidewalks
around the city, as well as tree and shrub trimming around the
sidewalks.

But most members of the Council were concerned what herbicide
would be used. Glyphosate, used in products like Roundup, is
called for the in the contract.

That got the Council inquiring. Were there alternatives? Why not
just use vinegar and water to get rid of the weeds? Could we run a
test to see if said vinegar would be as effective?

Martin said he’d look into it. His reaction was, as best I can
put it, one of slight exasperation.

“I just want to kill weeds,” Martin said to conclude the
discussion.

The contract with Superior Maintenance Solutions,
which still calls for Glyphosate, or some alternative of
it, will likely be passed Wednesday at the Council’s regular
meeting at the Norm Dicks Government Center. Meeting starts at 5:30
p.m. The full meeting agenda for Wednesday can be found
here.